ROHTAK, June 4 -- A day after Hansi police registered two FIRs against 31 residents of Chaint village for allegedly disrupting work on an under-construction pipeline and blocking the Hansi-Barwala road during a protest over drinking water supply pipeline, 51 women from the village observed a one-day hunger strike at the protest site on Wednesday.

The agitation demanding a separate water pipeline entered its 19th day, with villagers warning the administration that the protest would be intensified through an indefinite hunger strike if their demand was not met.

Ramrati, 80, who also joined the women on hunger strike, said that the villagers were only demanding their basic rights and essential facilities. "The demands of the villagers are ...